The Teacher is Talking: The Happiness Assignment

By Leslie Lindsay

I have been doing a little up-dating of my home decor lately. And I have fallen in love with these signs/art work called ‘Primitives by Kathy.’http://www.primitivesbykathy.com/. I love the sayings, I love what they mean and how they make me feel–laughter, complete agreement, thoughtfulness…you name it, you can find a sign to represent a feeling.

So, when I came across this one, I had to purchase it.

Something about it struck a cord with me. Maybe it’s the fact that I have young kids, maybe it’s the fact that kids today don’t always know what happiness it about–or maybe adults have sort of forgotten that teaching happiness is just as important as teaching, say compound words and indenting paragraphs. Regardless, I bought the sign/artwork and have hung it appropriately on a wall with photos and artwork from my children.

Here’s a challenge: Ask your kids what makes them happy. Do it tonight at the dinner table. Is it something tangible? Something that can be taken away, or is their identification of something that gives happiness more of a deep-seeded sense of worth? Of family togetherness? (Hint: If your child responds with “My Nintendo DS,” then it may be time to add a little discussion about happiness to your parenting repretoire).

Another ideas is to have your kiddo make a collage about all of the things that bring him or her happiness. Cut out pictures of animals, sunsets, the beach, books, hikes, trees, flowers, colors…whatever it may be. You probably don’t have to give much more direction than, “Cut out pictures of things that make you feel happy.” Then ask your child to discuss those ideas with you. You may be surprised.

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CREDITS & ACKNOWLEGDGEMENTS:

Leslie Lindsay is the award-winning author of SPEAKING OF APRAXIA (Woodbine House, 2012). Her work has been published in Pithead Chapel, Common Ground Review, Cleaver Magazine (craft and CNF), The Awakenings Review, The Nervous Breakdown, Ruminate's The Waking, Brave Voices Literary Magazine, Manifest-Station, among others. Cover art featured in Up the Staircase Quarterly May 2020; other photography forthcoming from Another Chicago Magazine (ACM)and Brushfire Arts & Literature summer 2020; poetry in Coffin Bell Journal in July 2020; CNF to appear in SemiColon Literary Magazine this fall; the 2nd edition of SPEAKING OF APRAXIA available from Woodbine House later in 2020. Leslie has been awarded as one of the top 1% reviewers on GoodReads and recognized by Jane Friedman as one of the most influential book reviewers. Since 2013, Leslie has interviewed over 700 bestselling and debut authors on her author interview series. Her "Reader's Response" was published in the September 2019 issue of Poets & Writers. Leslie is a former child/adolescent psychiatric R.N. at the Mayo Clinic and has attended writing classes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Northwestern University. She resides in the Chicago area. *RECENTLY COMPLETED*: MODEL HOME: A Daughter's Memoir of Madness & Motherhood about growing up with an interior decorator mother, her devolve into psychosis, mother-daughter estragement, and subsequent suicide.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT: I have always been drawn to the gnawing questions that focus on identity and belonging, with (dis)placement and (up)rootedness. I am interested in place and how that shapes us, as well as the interstitial connection of family, dysfunction, home, and the symmetry and parallels of nature. I think of those spaces of where we exist—what we’ve inherited--as distinct from where we belong.